The Minority of One

The Marxist monthly "The Minority of One, issue of May 1966, Volume VII, 5(78), featured a major article by Hugh B. Hester, entitled "Another Ocean Under Conquest", about the US and NATO as a force to oppose the peaceful Soviet Union from expanding in Europe, as well as dominating the Pacific Ocean.

This article was all over the place but it served to reveal Hester's long-time role as a pro-Soviet, pro-communist "disinformation" dissemination propagandist.

Some of his text reveals his pro-Soviet Union ideology.

"NATO was not created for the purpose of repelling Soviet aggression nor of meeting a threat of aggression". (Opening sentence). "No Soviet plans have ever been discovered for a military move west of the positions defined by the armistice of May 1945".

"She (Soviet Union) was anything but ready or willing to depart on military adventures".

"Now that they myth of the war-like Soviet stance is no longer credible to virtually anyone, it would seem that the time has come for dismantling NATO."

"This can only mean that the U.S. Government is determined to maintain overwhelming power in Western Europe as a part of its global campaign of conquest."

He was identified in the biography section of the article as:

"Brig. General Hugh B. Hester (USA-Ret.), a sponsor of and frequent contributor to our publication, was in 1942-1945 Director of Procurement of Military Supplies for General MacArthur's forces under the Reverse Lend-Lease Agreement with Australia; and in 1945-47, the Administrator of the U.S. Food and Agricultural program for Germany. He is Co-author (with Dr. Jerome Davis, of "On The Brink".
[[NB: Davis was one of the top pro-Soviet, CPUSA front activists in America. His piece "After Fifty Years" on how great the Soviet Union was on the 50th anniversary of the Communist Revolution, in the CPUSA front publication "New World Review, "50 Years of the USSR, November 7, 1917 - November 7, 1967", read like the country was truly a "workers paradise" with "a rich and increasingly abundant life for all the people" (is evident wherever the traveler goes", and "Certainly the Soviet people have every reason to celebrate their 50th Anniversary with pride and joy".

This was only a few months before the Soviet Union and its Soviet Bloc allies reinvaded Czechoslovakia to crush the "Velvet Revolution" of 1968 and later to crush the workers protests of Gdansk, Poland.

Hester was one of the few former military officers of the U.S. military to become an ardent supporter of the Soviet Union and of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), openly after WW2. The other was Gen. Arthur Trudeau.

He married into a Communist Party USA-affiliated family which might account for his deepening support of the Soviet Union and the CPUSA.(CITATION AND WIFE'S NAME to follow).

Hester's name was found in the "21 Year Index, Combined Cumulative Index 1954-1971" to Published Hearings, Studies and Reports of the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act (SISS) and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee of the Judiciary, United States Senate, Volume I, "A-K", August 1972. These cites to specific SISS publications are:

National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee

Vietnam Day Committee

A mixed group of veteran communists, Marxists, leftist radicals and some liberals formed the Vietnam Day Committee (VDC) to facilitate a major protest against the war in Vietnam on Oct. 15-16, 1965. Among the speakers at the Berkeley (Un. of California) protest was "retired Brigadier General Hugh B. Hester"[1]

Vietnam Veterans Against the War/Operation RAW

During the Labor Day weekend of September 4-7, 1970, Operation RAW ("Rapid American Withdrawal") took place. It was a three day protest march from Morristown, NJ, to Valley Forge State Park by over 200 veterans. It was sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Against the War. They were joined by members of Nurses for Peace and other peace groups. Dressed in combat fatigues and carrying toy weapons, the march was designed to dramatize a Vietnam-type search and destroy mission to the Middle America they passed through. Upon entering each town along the march, sweeps were made, prisoners taken and interrogated, property seized and homes cleared with the assistance of previously planted "guerrilla theater" actors portraying civilians. The 86 mile long march culminated in a four hour rally at Valley Forge that over 1,500 people attended. The honorary commander during this event was retired Army Brigadier General Hugh B. Hester. Sponsors included Senators George McGovern and Edmund Muskie, Rep. John Conyers, Paul O'Dwyer, Mark Lane, and Donald Sutherland. Scheduled speakers were John Kerry, Joe Kennedy, Rev. James Bevel, Mark Lane, Jane Fonda, and Sutherland. Congressman Allard Lowenstein, Mike Lerner, and Army First Lt. Louis Font also spoke.[2]

Among the leaders of the NPAC were those listed on the "National Peace Action Coalition - Steering Committee, as of July 2 (1971, was:
Brig. General Hugh B. Hester (ret), p. 3933, HISC Committee Exhibit 249 and an earlier undated Committee Exhibit 231 with additional names as of May 8th, p. 3882. These were found in the House Internal Security Committee hearings on the National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC) and Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ), hearings of July 20-22, and June 17, 1971, 92nd Congress, 1st Session.

Hester was long associated with the NCASF, among other cited CPUSA fronts and causes.

References

↑"Thirteenth Report Supplement on Un-American Activities in California 1966", Report of the Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities, to the 1966 First Extraordinary Session of the California Legislature, Sacramento, California, p. 97, chapter "The Vietnam Day Committee"